Sholom Aleichem's character Tevye from his masterpiece, "Fiddler on the Roof," believed in one soul thing, "Tradition, tradition!"
Most people today still believe, follow and rely on tradition. Every holiday known to man is based on tradition. Why else would we promote an overweight man who wears red pajamas every day to our youth?
In America, one of the biggest, longest lasting traditions is high school. Everybody goes through high school, and they all have customs that go with it. Even in small town Detroit Lakes, we have several traditions that have lasted over the ages and even some new ones that we are trying to get started.
Prom is a big tradition; there is no other reason to spend a ridiculous amount of money on clothes for another dance in our gymnasium. Day of Caring is a huge thing at DLHS; every person involved looks forward to it every year, even the people who would never go out of their own way to rake a neighbor's lawn.
And, of course, there is the annual Staff vs. Seniors kickball game that takes place at the end of Day of Caring, which, by the way, the staff will be shown no mercy this year. There is even the dreaded Little Sisters, a fear invoked night that is better not to get into, yet we still have every year.
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Seniors always play a prank on the school, some years more subtle than others, but nonetheless the senior class pulls one off. Another senior tradition in the high school, that seems to make the most controversy, is senior skip day.
Every year I have been in high school, I have been in at least one class with seniors also in them. Every year, I hear the empty threats of a 100-point test that will be given on the day of senior skip day, and every year the teachers never seem to follow through.
I understand teachers do not like it and do not approve of students skipping class, but I cannot grasp why the staff of DLHS get so upset over senior skip day. I know every single one of them were a senior in high school once, too, and, whether they would ever admit it or not, they more than likely all participated in their senior skip day.
It is most amusing, though to hear parents talk about the infamous skip day like it is no big deal. I have not talked to one adult who has, or has had, a child in high school and has a problem with the seniors taking one day out of the year to skip together as a class.
It may seem like a stretch, but that day really is something that unites the senior class. We do not necessarily spend the day all together, but just knowing that together we carried out a tradition that no class has been intimidated away from before us.
We cannot be the first class to be scared out of having our senior skip day, and we won't be, but it would be so great if we did not have to worry about that. The staff should be able to realize that by this point in the year, the seniors need this day to keep their spirits up and to keep them holding on until that final day of high school.
The motivation of carrying out a tradition that has lasted since before anyone can remember is exactly what the doctor ordered to keep us from giving up and slacking off the rest of the year. Since senior skip day is considered a holy day to the seniors, staff should not even think twice about it, considering it is truly harmless.
With that, if anyone knows when senior skip day is, would you mind filling me in?
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Annie Harman is a senior at Detroit Lakes High School.
